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Warning: This web at
toLearn.net/marketing/ is two years old, it's unattended, and the
links are rotting. However, in June 2000, the
server recorded over 10,000 page requests during more than 3,000 visitor sessions from dozens of
countries. Thus, I'm reluctant to take it down completely. Ricci Street | MBA 604 | marketing |
What Is Information Design?
Who Are Information Designers? || The Mining Company
It's a new field and it's a rapidly changing field. So take your pick: Information design is ... ... the communication of complex information through clear
language and design. ... what helps explain things. It uses language,
typography, graphic design, and systems and business process improvement as its key tools.
It is focused on users and is committed to using usability and other research and testing
to find out whether its products actually achieve their objectives. ... a theoretical structure by which information is
organised and presented. The separation of document design into information and graphic
design ... ... applying the principles of design to the selection,
organization, and presentation of information. From paragraphs to pie charts and CD-ROMs
to Web sites, it is a means of building effective information products. ... based on a process view of intentional transformation
of data-elements into information ... in order to obtain an understandable representation.
For a wider definition, here's an email that Gillian Crampton Smith of the Royal College of Art sent to a mailing list that I get. Who Are Information Designers? They are interested in making things that people respond to emotionally, as well as things that work well for them. They work with cultural effects as well as practical effects. (I'm using cultural here not in the sense of high culture, but everyday culture that affects what we choose to make, see and do.) So a building is not just a place to keep out the weather, nor is it only "a machine for living" as Le Corbusier would have us believe; it also has a symbolic value, so we can tell the difference between a town hall and a filling station and we "read" the symbolism of a corporate headquarters as in the past people read the symbolism of a gothic cathedral. It also can -- and should -- delight us. Everything we give form to has elements that are understood because they refer indirectly to society's shared pool of meanings -- its culture. Chartres cathedral does not need a large sign outside saying "This is the House of God". We know it is because our culture has taught us to interpret the form of buildings. { Doug's note See John Seely Brown's similar observations in The Social Life of Documents. }
An information designer is ...
Richard Saul Wurman The most important skills in the next decade and beyond will be the abilities to create information and experiences for others that are valuable, compelling, and empowering. To do this, we must learn new ways of organizing and presenting data and information to directly address these phenomena:
Nathan Shedroff
What if you get paid for it? How difficult is it to find information on the Web? What turns that information into knowledge: information commented on, absorbed into a context, and presented attractively? A link editor acts as an intermediary between those who seek information and the information on the various interconnected Web servers. Link editors acquire, improve, promote, and distribute information and images. Are you interested?
The Mining Company by K. Kris
Hirst
On the other hand, the growth in content on the Web has made it more difficult for consumers to access it. Whether they are using the Web as an educational resource or as entertainment, consumers are faced with the difficult, time-consuming, and frustrating task of sorting through the thousands of sites available on a particular topic. Search engines, while useful starting points, do not evaluate a site for its content; they merely mechanically recognize keywords that a Web author has provided to them. Even the best of the search engines requires consumers to individually assess the value and validity of the information they discover -- something that they do not always have the background to do. What is needed, then, is a bridge between the content producer and the consumer. In founding The Mining Company ®, Scott Kurnit is attempting to provide that bridge. Kurnit recognized that the evaluation process was arduous for the consumer, and so began building a network of specialists to evaluate and organize the resources in their own specialty. These specialists, called Guides in The Mining Company terminology, are chosen on the basis of their background and passion in a particular topic, their technical agility, and their ability to combine content production with gatekeeper functions. By September of 1997, over five hundred Guides are active, in fields ranging from journalism to medicine to soap opera fanatics to gardeners to weavers. Each Guide provides a front page, updated weekly, dozens of resource pages with annotated links, and a monthly "best of the net" list. In addition, Guides provide a weekly feature article, such as a commentary, book review, analysis, or discussion of some topic in their field of endeavor. Doug's comment If you go to the Mining Company site, you can see what Kris Hirst does for archaeology. Check out other topics that interest you. One of my favorites is Matt the Map Man in the Geography section. Check out what it takes to become a Mining Company Guide. It's similar to what I'm doing for this course and to what I want you to do for your course project.
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Mass media reporting of the Internet as a dark and dangerous place,
replete with computer hackers and child molesters, excesses of pornography, and rampant
urban legends of security leaks and computer viruses have all played a role in retarding
both the growth of the Web and its use by consumers. 
